214 The American Naturalist. [March, 
As many of the specimens are unique, and much of the material 
fragmentary and hard to preserve, the descriptions have been made 
exceedingly full, so that a possible loss of material may not mean a total 
loss to science. Existing data concerning oceanic fishes have been care- 
fully collected and incorporated with the authors’ own observations in 
such a way as to be most serviceable for comparison and study by other 
naturalists. 
A brief introduction deplores the meager knowledge of abyssal life, 
and points out that a more extended exploration of oceanic depths will 
reveal innumerable new forms. 
A list of new genera and species shows 55 of the former represented 
by 153 of the latter. 
The work comprises 553 pagesof text and 123 plates, the latter issued 
separately as an atlas accompanying the text. It will be for many 
years the only text-book of the subject. A melancholy interest attaches 
to it as the last and most important contribution to science made by 
Dr. Goode. His death occurred almost immediately after its completion. 
Fishes of North and Middle America.’—This work takes 
the form of a descriptive catalogue of the species of fish-like vertebrates 
found in the waters of North America, north of the Isthmus of Panama. 
It includes, besides the fresh. water forms, those of the off-shore banks 
and continental slopes of both oceans, the waters of the Gulf Stream, 
and also the Pelagic and abyssal forms that occur north of the equator. 
The present volume contains descriptions of 1,627 species belonging to 
522 genera. These in turn are classified into 148 families, ranged under 
28 orders. , The authors recognize but 3 classes: Leptocardii, Marsi- 
pobranchii and Pisces, relegating to Pisces all fish-like vertebrates with 
paired fins. Sixteen new forms are described, and in the classification 
of these species the authors have found it necessary to create 1 new 
family, Steinegeriidz, and 16 new genera. It has also been deemed ad- 
visable, for closer definition, to introduce 24 new subgenera. 
We find in this work both conspicuous merits and demerits. ts 
greatest merit is the thoroughness of the work done in the discrimina 
tion of the species enumerated, and the appropriateness and conciseness 
of the descriptions. This is the principal labor involved in the prepa- 
ration of the book, and it is this which constitutes its chief utility to 
the student. The excellent practice of furnishing analytical keys, which 
greatly facilitates determinations, is followed. It is a monument of 
3 The Fishes of North and Middle America. By D. S. Jordan and B. W- 
Evermann. Bull. of the U. S. National Museum, No. 47. Pt. I, Washington, 
1896. 
